Tears Unshed
by Swamp Fairy
Summary: Love is a mixed bag. You never know what you're going to grab when you reach in. *A series of Doppler-Amelia oneshots, dealing with the many different emotions in their bag.
1. Chapter 1

**I love this movie. I love these characters. I love this couple. I don't own any of the above, unfortunately. What more to say?**

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Captain Amelia had not cried for many, many years. She hadn't cried as a little girl, when her friends teased her or bullies went after her. She hadn't cried as a teenager, when her mother left or her father died. She doubted she had cried as a baby. She wasn't crying now, when her best friend was killed. But she was deathly afraid that she was about to.

The wind was harsh up in the crow's nest; it whipped back her fur and stung her face. It was cold, too. She shivered. There was a moon ahead though, bright and full. A giant orb hanging in the sky. She watched it pass, unable to take her eyes off of it. She could almost swear she saw his face in it.

She was startled from her thoughts by a loud huffing. The ropes attached to the crow's nest began to shake as someone struggled to climb it. Amelia retreated to the other side of the nest as Doctor Doppler tumbled in.

"Long way up, isn't it?" he asked between panting breaths.

"Doctor, did you have a purpose in coming up here?" she asked, not facing him. She couldn't help shivering in the next gust of wind.

"Yes, actually. I brought you a blanket and some food. You weren't at supper."

"I, unlike some others, can skip meals and survive," she said disdainfully, but turned to accept his offerings. Wrapping the blanket around her, she sunk back down into a sitting position.

"I'm sorry about your friend," he apologized.

"Posh. Life goes on," she said harshly, but it felt her heart was being ripped in two.9

"I suppose so. Life always goes on, doesn't it? It doesn't wait for anyone to catch up. Anyone."

She glanced up at him, surprised, then down again. She blinked furiously.

"It's alright. You should cry. It's quite healthy, actually," he said kindly. She made a small noise, almost a sob, in the back of her throat, but coughed against it and said, "Doctor, I, Captain Amelia, do not cry. No matter what the circumstances."

He snorted quietly. She glanced up at him, nonplussed, and stared him full in the face. His eyes were so big and naïve. No, not naïve. Trusting. Innocent. They were golden, the same color as the sun. Arrow's eyes had always been so cold and empty. Hard. Even when he was smiling, they were more like the moon. There was something about the Doctor's eyes that made her feel safe.

"Arrow was a good man," Doppler said softly. "And a good friend. It's not wrong for you to mourn him, it's wrong for you not to. Let it out, my dear, before it lets itself out."

She stared up at the moon as the doctor rustled softly behind her. Maybe he was right. There was so much pain trapped inside her.

"Just cry," he advised, and that was it. The kindness in his eyes broke her and her heart and eyes released their burden as one. She was sobbing, sobbing for Arrow and her father and mother and every time someone had hurt her. She was making up for years and years of bottled up pain, crying in the doctor's arms.

Slowly, slowly, her flood of tears slowed and she felt her consciousness slip away from her. Moons and suns turned into sobbing eyes in the dark dreams dancing through her mind. Then, blissfully, nothing.

She awoke in the morning alone in the crow's nest, the blanket tucked around her with the utmost care. The stale bread had been tucked under her head as a pillow, albeit a hard one. She touched her face and felt the tear stains, but for some reason she felt free. Smiling slightly to herself, she swung out down on the ropes, ready for another day.

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**Please review. Please, please, please, please. Just do it!**


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm back!!! This is the song When I Look to the Sky, by Train. I don't own it. Or the movie. OR THE STORY. I STOLE THE STORY, AND THE ALIENS WANT IT BACK...**

**Okay, but seriously, this is a slightly angstier take on the Doppler-Amelia relationship. Hope you enjoy.**

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_When it rains it pours and opens doors__  
__And floods the floors we thought would always keep us safe and dry  
And in the midst of sailing ships we sink our lips into the ones we love  
That have to say goodbye_

Again. She was gone again. Doctor Delbert Doppler stared up at the sky, a heavy feeling of abandonment weighing down his chest and the fleeting feeling of her lips on his already fading from his mouth. How long was this one supposed to be? 4 weeks, give or take? She had only been back for a bittersweet week before leaving again. He turned away from the ship before he couldn't see it anymore, framed against the gray sky. Hands in his pockets, head down in deep thought, he trudged away from the docking station.

This was not what he had expected when he had married the captivating Captain Amelia Smollet. Not that he had expected her to give up the Etherium altogether, she was too much of a sailor for that. But he had wanted to see her for more than a week every other month. His feet took him to the air-cab, the air-cab took him to his house. It was raining on Montressor, huge drops of liquid silver tumbling down from the sky and rolling down his face as he stood in the doorway of his mansion. The emptiness had never bothered him before her, but now...

It echoed. The echoing was terrible, screaming at him how alone he was. Eating was hard, too, eating alone always made him feel like something was missing. But quite possibly the worst was waking up in the mornings, waking up to a cold bed. He often dreamed of the red-haired beauty, but waking up brought back the truth: she was gone again.

He turned away from the house, locking the door behind him. He couldn't stay there tonight. He knew exactly where to go. As Sarah opened the door of the newly rebuilt Benbow, she gave him a small, comforting smile. Despite all the guests, she was alone, too, with her son away at the academy. She simply stood aside, taking his dripping coat from him. She felt his pain.

_And as I float along this ocean  
I can feel you like a notion that won't seem to let me go_

Was it worth it? He was beginning to wonder. Without her, he would still be alone, but he wouldn't always have the crushing sense that something was missing. She followed him, through his thoughts and dreams, bewitching him, holding him close even while she was planets away.

_Cause when I look to the sky something tells me you're here with me  
And you make everything alright  
And when I feel like I'm lost something tells me you're here with me  
And I can always find my way when you are here_

He pulled a small picture out of his breast pocket. It was of the captain, standing at the front of her ship, hair blown back in the wind. There was an expression of such joyful bliss on her face, and Delbert sighed, putting it back in his pocket. He couldn't take it away from her, no matter what she was taking away from him. Namely, his heart.

The rain was stopping, and he went out onto his balcony, staring up the sky. It was filled with stars, beautiful and bright. With a twinge deep inside, he wondered where she was right now. Was she staring out at the stars, too, thinking of him? Sighing ruefully, he admitted to himself that if she could never truly tie herself down. She was meant to reach for the stars. He was meant to get left behind.

Someday, maybe, their paths would become one and the same. But for now, no matter how much he loved her, she couldn't survive without her stars. She would die inside, as surely as if she was hung. He would have to be content, knowing that no matter how far her voyages took her, she would always return to him.

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And every word I didn't say that caught up in some busy day  
And every dance on the kitchen floor we didn't have before  
And every sunset that we'll miss, I'll wrap them all up in a kiss  
And pick you up in all of this when I sail away

The rain was already slowing, he could hear the pounding on the roof lessen as he climbed the steps to the room Sarah tried to keep empty for him. He stepped out onto the balcony, ignoring his bare feet. He stared up at the few stars he could see between the swollen gray clouds, wondering where she was now. Then a bright streak of light passed between the clouds. A shooting star. He closed his eyes, acutely aware of the wet cement beneath his feet, of the rustling of the wind and the damp heavy air. Leaning forwards onto the rail, he wished.

He didn't quite know what he was wishing for. He didn't wish that Amelia was any different than she was; if she lost herself, he didn't know if he would still love her. He didn't want her to spend more time with him- he did, but she wouldn't be happy, and her unhappiness was worse than his. Maybe, just maybe, he wished he didn't love her.

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And as I float along this ocean  
I can feel you like a notion that I hope will never leave

Was it worth it? That question came to him more and more lately. He was beginning to feel less and less sure of his answer. Would it be better just to end it? She wouldn't be tied down anymore, free again. And he... he would go back to before. He wasn't unhappy before, unhappy as he was now. Maybe a little lonely on occasion, but not miserable like this. He didn't want to lose her. She meant the world to him. But at the same time....

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Whether I am up or down or in or out or just plane overhead  
Instead it just feels like it is impossible to fly  
But with you I can spread my wings  
to see me over everything that life may send me  
When I am hoping it won't pass me by

He wished love didn't hurt so much. That was it. He had read too much as a child, too many happily-ever-after fairy tales. They taught you that when you found love, it was prefect, blissful happiness. But in truth, love hurt. It made you happy, true, but not forever, not even temporarily. Every happiness was offset by another bit of pain, sawing through your heart. He forgot, sometimes, that he wasn't a prince and she wasn't a princess, and there wouldn't necessarily be a 'happily ever after.'

Sometimes he wondered if she loved him. He loved her, no question about that, but how much did she love him? Was she happy, now, married to him, or was he just a temporary distraction between voyages? Her first love was the stars, he knew that, and it hurt like a knife in the ribs that he would always be second best. He always had been, and he always would be.

Was that how Sarah felt? Before her husband left her? Was that how her husband had felt? And would he be the one leaving, or the one left behind? He had a feeling that Amelia was just another unlucky stroke of fate that, in the end, was simply going to make him even more like Sarah. Abandoned, alone, and losing faith in the world.

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And when I feel like there is no one that will ever know me  
there you are to show me

Was it worth it? Yes. Despite anything else, it always came back to her. He was in her power now, and he would wait forever, if it took that. She knew him like no one else, and those few, precious days of being utterly, completely whole, lost in love, made it all worthwhile. Someday, maybe, she would come back to him for good. And until then...

He would look to the sky.

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_**Meh, I dunno. This was kinda an inspiration burst, one of those things that refuse to stay in your head. Now that it's done, I'm not so sure about it... I feel like maybe his thoughts are a little OoC (Thanks, Yellowworld.) But anyways. Who cares what I think? Tell my what YOU think. Review!!!**


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